Here’s what I noted about Bergamo in my trip report in 2022, just in case you like sketching or watercolor, too!
Bergamo: Bergamo had been on my short list; what a treasure! Three days to enjoy exquisite architecture of the upper Citta Alta – wow! Nothing in upper Bergamo is flat! Lots of up or down - a great workout with beautiful sites!
My first day in Bergamo was the students’ last day of class, so there were cheerful happy voices everywhere. Don’t stay in this medieval area if you don’t like the sound of bells. At night they still ring the bells 100 times because of tradition!
My second day in Bergamo was Art Day! I tried to avoid most indoor activities this trip because of the requirement to test negative to return to the US, but I really wanted to enjoy an Italian art museum again & see some of the work of my favorite Italian painters at the Accademia Carrara Museum! I arrived early and was the only person viewing each floor! That’s a major reason why I love going to the “less touristy towns” - gorgeous art to enjoy at a leisurely pace with no crowd crazies taking selfies in the museum. That afternoon I had an enjoyable private outdoor sketching class with a very nice, very patient artist – Martin Cambriglia (contact is info@martincambriglia.com). He & I both sketched the front of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore through an archway, sitting in the shade.
The next morning, Martin, the young man who was yesterday’s art instructor, met with me for his outdoor watercolor class. We both painted the Piazza Vecchio’s main building & clock tower. It included the lion with the wings on the building, and the tall medieval walls around the upper city are also called the Venetian Wall. Martin spent more time with me than I expected, and I really appreciated his care & professional attitude to help me as a beginner. I was glad some people stopped to watch us paint and asked for his business card. I learned so much from him just in those two days and now have two treasured art pieces with wonderful memories for my walls at home!
Bergamo is the city that was hit so hard when Covid began. Remember the news articles in early 2020 when Italian doctors were forced to make the heart-wrenching decision who would & would not receive medical help and hearses drove by the windows of a home as the last goodbye? I had wondered as I was planning this trip if I would still see the older men gathering socially like they had in the past. I saw much less and so far none in Bergamo. But late afternoon my second day, I was studying the astronomical clock laid out on the ground in 1857. An elderly man came up to me and started speaking in Italian. We did a few broken words back & forth to get across what I was looking at and where the sun would peer over the Duomo to line up the day-of-the-year on the ground. Then he motioned for me to come into the Duomo with him. I didn’t have a blouse with covered sleeves and motioned, but he insisted. He showed me some very special items that I wouldn’t have noticed. He wished me well. I really appreciated that he was willing to share some of his treasured pieces of Bergamo with me, as I’m sure it has been a difficult two years for him.
At Bergamo I stayed in two different hotels near each other. I specifically stayed at the Gombit Hotel two nights because they had refunded my money on my non-refundable reservation in 2020. I definitely wanted to support them this trip in appreciation! It’s a remodeled glamorous hotel adjacent to the Citta Alta Gombit Tower - a special first class experience and nicer than most of my other hotels. My first night, I also stayed at Hotel Piazza Vecchia. Although more modest, my room was still spacious
